TEHRAN: An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and pilot have been killed in a helicopter crash during an operation in the country’s restive southeast, official media reported on Monday.
IRNA news agency reported that the “ultra-light gyroplane” of the IRGC “had an accident while carrying out combat operations in a border region.
It reported that the crash occurred in Sirkan, and identified the dead as General Hamid Mazandarani, the commander of the Nineveh Brigade of Golestan province, and Hamed Jandaghi, a pilot of the IRGC ground forces.
Helicopter mishaps are a rare sight in Iran, but former president Ebrahim Raisi was also killed when his helicopter crashed into a mountainside in May, triggering snap polls in the country. He was accompanied by then minister of foreign affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six other people who were all killed.
